Oil touches four-month high as output freeze returns centre stage

Brent oil futures touched a four-month high on Tuesday as investor confidence grew in last week’s deal by oil producers to freeze output levels in order to stem a two-year price rout.

Benchmark Brent crude oil futures LCOc1 reached a four-month high of $51.37 a barrel, but relinquished some of the gains by 1358 GMT, trading at $51.10, up 21 cents on the previous close.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 touched the highest level in three months at $49.13 a barrel earlier in the session before retreating to $48.87, up 6 cents day on day.

A landmark deal by members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) last week has revived hopes that producers will limit a growing glut of oil supplies and ultimately help oil prices recover.

Iran, which is allowed to produce “maximum levels that make sense” as part of the OPEC deal, said on Tuesday that OPEC members’ cooperation with non-OPEC producers would play an important role in stabilising oil prices.

A delegation from Iran’s energy ministry will visit Russia in October-November to present potential oil deals to Russian companies.

Russian news agency Interfax reported Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak as saying that experts from Russia and Saudi Arabia would determine a date for the energy ministries’ meeting in the near future.

Despite confidence in a production freeze, some OPEC members continue to raise output.

Iran’s crude oil and condensate sales have likely approached levels last seen at peak time in 2011 before western sanctions were imposed, sources with knowledge of the matter said.

Iran, likely sold 2.8 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude and condensate in September, the sources said.

In a further sign it plans to lift output, Iran on Tuesday signed its first new style contract with a domestic company to upgrade two of its oil fields.

Iran wants to regain its pre-sanctions production level of 4 million bpd.
At the same time, production is also rising in Libya, which is also exempt from an output freeze. The country’s Arabian Gulf Oil Company (AGOCO) said its production had risen to 320,000 bpd, up from about 290,000 bpd late last week, helping to push the country’s production above 500,000 bpd.